Middlemarch

Bulstrode’s Ride to Stone Court

Bulstrode almost immediately mounts his horse and rides toward Stone Court, anxious to arrive before Lydgate. His mind is crowded with alternating images of humiliation at Caleb’s rejection and a sense of safety in the thought that only Garth has heard anything. The chain of events strikes him as a kind of providential earnest that secrecy may still be possible. He mentally lifts up a vow that, if spared disgrace, his life shall be more consecrated than ever. He repeats the prayer “Thy will be done,” yet beneath it persists the intense desire that God’s will might be the death of Raffles.

Raffles in a State of Terror

On arriving at Stone Court, Bulstrode finds Raffles profoundly altered. Apart from pallor and physical feebleness, the change appears almost entirely mental. The loud, tormenting manner has given way to a vague, intense terror. Raffles pleads with Bulstrode, saying the money is gone, that he has been robbed, that he came only because he was ill and being hunted, and insisting that he has told nobody anything. Bulstrode interprets this nervousness as an opportunity to extract confessions and accuses Raffles of lying, since Raffles has plainly spoken to Caleb Garth. But Raffles solemnly denies this, for the links of his consciousness are interrupted; his narrative to Garth was delivered under impulses that have since dropped back into darkness. Bulstrode’s heart sinks at this unreliability, though the housekeeper confirms that Raffles has spoken to no one since Garth’s departure, leaving a precarious hope that the secret remains confined.

Lydgate’s Medical Assessment

Lydgate arrives at Stone Court within the hour. Outside the wainscoted parlor where Raffles lies, Bulstrode offers a careful account of the patient’s history: a former employee who went to America, returned to dissolute ways, has a claim on Bulstrode’s charity, and is slightly connected to Rigg, the former owner. He claims the man’s mind is affected. Lydgate, still smarting from his last conversation with Bulstrode and disinclined toward unnecessary words, asks only the patient’s name before entering. After a thorough examination, he concludes that the case is difficult but not immediately fatal; the man had a robust constitution, and though the system is in a ticklish state, this particular attack need not be expected to kill him if he is well watched and attended.

Lydgate’s Instructions for Raffles’ Care

Lydgate’s prescribed treatment requires firmness. Raffles must be put to bed and kept in the most complete quiet possible. Above all, no liquors of any kind are to be administered. Lydgate cautions Bulstrode that men in Raffles’s condition are oftener killed by treatment than by the disease, though he warns that new symptoms may yet arise. He promises to return the following morning, leaving Bulstrode with a prognosis that is cautiously hopeful provided the treatment is rigorously followed.

Bulstrode’s Offer to Stay

Bulstrode offers to remain at Stone Court himself for the night, citing the inexperience of Mrs. Abel and her husband and his own willingness to oversee the patient’s care. He asks Lydgate to carry a note to Mrs. Bulstrode explaining his absence, justifying it by referring to his occasional practice of staying at Stone Court for seclusion. Lydgate, noticing nothing remarkable in this arrangement, agrees and delivers his directions only to Bulstrode, accepting the arrangement without surprise.

Lydgate’s Reflections on the Case

After the note is sent off, Lydgate rides home forming no immediate conjectures about Raffles’s history but rehearsing in his mind the whole medical argument about the treatment of alcoholic poisoning, recently stirred by the publication of Dr. Ware’s American experience. He remains strongly convinced against the prevalent practice of allowing alcohol and administering large doses of opium, having already acted on this belief with favorable results abroad. He reflects that Raffles, though diseased, still has much constitutional wear left in him. Observing Bulstrode’s apparent solicitude, Lydgate marvels at the patches of hardness and tenderness that lie side by side in human dispositions, noting that Bulstrode seems unsympathetic toward some yet lavishes trouble and money on chosen charitable objects. Lydgate concludes, with a touch of bitterness, that Bulstrode must have his own test for determining whom Heaven cares for, and that he himself is evidently not among those favored.